An Application of the Empirical Bayes Approach to Directly Adjusted Rates: A Note on Suicide Mapping in California.

Lui, Kung-Jong; And Others

Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, v20 n3 p240-53 Fall 1990

Claims a simple, reliable, and comparable measure for suicide mapping and other health problems is needed. Proposes an empirical Bayes approach whereby information from other areas is borrowed to improve the precision of the estimates of local-age specific rates in calculating directly adjusted rates, especially in areas with small population sizes. (Author/ABL)